015
015
New tenants had arrived.
There were three in total: a married couple and their daughter.
Checking with the Status Window, they weren't Looters, and since they were in a crisis, I rescued them.
Actually, once I saw the wife's job, I decided I had to save them no matter what.
Nurse.
Plus, her Level was a whopping 5.
Level 5 is high.
Level 5 Kang Mu-yeol slaughtered Swarm Zombies without any trouble.
But a Level 5 medical professional?
I had to save them, obviously.
The husband and daughter's jobs were just okay.
Cleaner and Collector.
Just looking at the names, I thought the Collector might be somewhat useful, but in reality, collecting wasn't really necessary.
After all, I could get supplies replenished for just 1 Coin, and I could even choose the contents myself, so there was no need to make a young student go outside to scavenge for supplies.
The parents would likely put up quite a fight, too.
The husband's job was Cleaner.
Cleaner didn't seem like a very necessary job either.
Cleaning the house was something the residents had to do themselves, and the hallway and rooftop had become clean after I secured them this time.
In reality, I didn't even need the nurse right now.
If one of the tenants gets sick later, that's when they can shine.
It's insurance I took out in advance.
Anyway, since I didn't really need the whole family right now, I planned to just let them adjust to this Villa for the time being.
That was the plan, but for some reason, after something happened in Room 401, the husband, Nam Hyun-sik, suddenly came to find me and asked to borrow Kang Mu-yeol, saying he wanted to put his professional skills to use.
Nam Hyun-sik wasn't just an ordinary cleaner.
He was a boss who ran a cleaning company and a building management company.
Not a fake like me, but a real boss.
I didn't know what he was planning, but since I'd already accepted him as a tenant, I figured he wouldn't do anything stupid, so I let him do it.
And the next day.
"Hmm?"
I woke up in the morning and looked out the window to soak up some sun, but the view was different from usual.
Originally, the area around the Villa was messy with zombie corpses that Kang Mu-yeol had beaten to death, but the zombie corpses had completely disappeared as if they had never been there in the first place.
It was aesthetically excellent.
How long had it been since I'd seen a street without zombies?
I figured I should ask what happened, so I went out into the hallway, but an even more surprising sight unfolded.
The 4th-floor hallway was clean because I had secured it, but the stairs and walls leading to the floor below were dirty because they hadn't been secured yet.
The dirty traces had all disappeared.
It was as clean as if it had been secured.
"Whoa...."
It created the illusion that the stairs and walls had been secured.
Of course, I hadn't seen any System message saying I'd secured another floor, so I didn't choose to take the risk of going down the stairs.
I heard someone coming up the stairs.
I stood in the hallway, which was a Safe Zone, and waited for the source of the footsteps.
"Ah, Boss. Did you sleep well last night?"
"Good morning, Boss."
It was Nam Hyun-sik and Kang Mu-yeol.
While fatigue was spread across Kang Mu-yeol's face, Nam Hyun-sik's expression was bright.
"Looks like you've been out since the morning?"
"I cleaned up a bit in front of the Villa and tidied up the hallways on other floors. Just roughly for now."
As expected, the person who cleaned the zombie corpses and the floor below was Nam Hyun-sik.
"But why do you look so dead?"
I asked Kang Mu-yeol.
Kang Mu-yeol's face was quite different from when he was beating up zombies.
"Perhaps because he's quite old, he doesn't seem to sleep in. He started working before the sun even rose and ended up finishing it by the morning."
Even though I wasn't the type to wake up late, the fact that he finished this much cleaning meant he had woken up much earlier than that.
'Did he start at dawn before sunrise?'
An amazing ability.
Diligence pays off wherever you go.
Or maybe he just doesn't sleep in.
"Oh, right. I actually had something to tell you."
Nam Hyun-sik said with a subdued expression.
He has a talent for making people anxious.
I intended to listen to the story while treating him to a cup of coffee in my house.
Nam Hyun-sik made a different suggestion.
"It's a breath of fresh air, really."
We all went up to the rooftop.
Nam Hyun-sik stretched his arms out to both sides and took a deep breath.
There might be fresh air, but the smell of zombies must be significant too.
Nam Hyun-sik didn't care and breathed deeply.
Kang Mu-yeol didn't even look at the scenery outside and flopped down into a chair.
"More importantly, about what you wanted to say...?"
It's almost mealtime.
Reports are important, of course, but if it's not a very important matter, there's no need to report every single detail.
I'm generous, after all.
"The building's exterior wall was a bit strange."
"...The exterior wall?"
It was true that this Villa was an old building.
Since Nam Hyun-sik had also been a boss of a building management company, I thought he would bring up something about building maintenance.
However, the story Nam Hyun-sik brought up while sipping his instant coffee was different from what I expected.
"There were marks left behind as if something had dug into it. Except for the 4th floor where we are staying."
"Can we see it from here?"
"Try looking down. You'll probably see it."
Nam Hyun-sik walked over to the rooftop railing and peered down.
I followed Nam Hyun-sik's lead.
"Oh. I can really see it."
Nam Hyun-sik's words were not a lie.
There were quite a few of the marks Nam Hyun-sik mentioned near the rooftop as well.
It wasn't just this building.
"The building next door also has the same marks."
They were handprints, as if something had gouged them out with its hands.
No matter how I looked at it, they were marks made by hands, but there was no one among humans who could do such a thing.
"Ah. Well, there is one."
I couldn't think of anyone other than Kang Mu-yeol.
"It's not me. I trust you won't assume I climbed the wall to get home."
He was right.
No matter how agile and strong Kang Mu-yeol was, there was no way he would climb the building instead of using the front door.
I had seen one guy recently who climbed buildings.
It wasn't a human; it was a zombie.
It was agile, but was its grip strong enough to pierce the building's exterior wall?
And in fact, with Kang Mu-yeol, I could now handle most threats.
Although I had shown an opening to the 'Spider', we had managed to fend it off well enough with our joint attack.
If we meet again, Kang Mu-yeol won't let his guard down.
I have no reason to meet it. I don't go outside the Safe Zone.
That was when it happened.
A shadow fell over the rooftop.
The sky was clear.
There was just a monster visible in the air, blocking the sunlight.
"Prepare for battle."
It was no ordinary one.
It's chasing us this persistently?
If we parted on bad terms yesterday, shouldn't it have given up by now?
The 'Spider' was the 'Spider'.
I could tell just by its jumping posture.
Kang Mu-yeol gripped his baseball bat tightly.
A Level 7 warrior and a special zombie, the 'Spider'.
It was a lineup that made my heart swell.
Just before the collision.
A System window popped up in front of my eyes.
「Intruder detected.」
「Expelling outside the Safe Zone.」
The 'Spider', which had leaped up boldly, was pushed out of the building as if it had been blocked by a transparent barrier before it could even set foot on the rooftop.
Kang Mu-yeol's swing cut through the air.
The Spider, having landed on the rooftop of the adjacent building, tilted its head as if it didn't understand what had happened.
Kang Mu-yeol looked at me.
He seemed to know that I was the cause.
"So this is what a Safe Zone means."
It was my first time experiencing this too.
To be honest, I was scared.
Because I thought I might have to face the Spider on the rooftop.
Since it jumped up so confidently, I thought it might not be affected.
But the effect of the Safe Zone was even better than I thought.
It pushed the intruder completely outside the range.
It didn't seem to matter which direction it came from.
"If that's the case...."
I immediately took the slingshot out of my pocket.
There were plenty of steel balls in my pocket as well.
I took out one steel ball and loaded it onto the slingshot's rubber band.
"It means it can't attack us while we're standing on the rooftop, right?"
The opponent can't even approach, but I can attack?
It's practically cheating.
It's a dangerous enemy when you meet it outside, but in this situation, the Spider was just a nimbly moving target.
I shot the slingshot at the Spider without hesitation.
That didn't mean I shot carelessly.
Isn't this the perfect setup for practice?
I should aim with my best effort.
And the steel ball isn't light, either.
Swaeeeek!
The steel ball flew powerfully toward the Spider.
But it was a frontal shot.
It's a guy that even dodged steel balls flying from behind.
There was no reason it couldn't dodge a steel ball flying from the front.
The Spider moved lightly and dodged the steel ball.
Clang!
A clear sound rang out.
The Spider seemed startled by the loud noise and flinched.
However, it didn't leave its spot.
Instead, it glared at me.
'I must never go outside the Safe Zone.'
I had a strong hunch that it would pounce on me the moment I stepped out.
Now that I thought about it, it was infuriating.
I pulled the slingshot again.
Swaeeeek!
It dodged with light movements this time too.
「'Slingshot' Level has increased.」
Huh.
I didn't expect to level up at this timing.
A one-level difference was a huge margin.
Pulling the slingshot became much lighter.
Furthermore, I could see the trajectory of the steel ball.
I deliberately lowered the position.
If I fired the slingshot in this state, the 'Spider' would definitely jump up.
I could faintly see the angle at which it would jump.
As soon as I fired one steel ball, I immediately took out the next one and loaded it onto the rubber band.
The Spider jumped up as expected.
It becomes defenseless in the air.
"Gotcha."
What if one shot doesn't hit?
I just have to keep shooting until it hits.
Is this how the Indians who performed rain dances felt?